مجله مرکز مطالعات و توسعه آموزش علوم پزشکی یزد
سال هفدهم شماره 1 (بهار 1401)

Spring 2022

Assessing students' professional skills, teamwork and communication proficiency in the clinical environment by multiple evaluators such as educators, peers and students themselves is essential. The aim of this study was to compare the self-assessment method and peer assessment as means of evaluation on the clinical competence of medical students of Jahrom University of Medical Sciences.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 110 medical students of University of Medical Sciences in 2020-2021.Convenience sampling method was used. To assess clinical competence, a valid and reliable questionnaire was used in four areas of communicative proficiency, cooperation with the medical team, patient management and practical skills. Data analysis was performed using independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance.

The results of self-assessment showed that students in the field of practical skills (12.44 ± 3.16) were more capable but in the field of communication skills (7.96 ± 2.01) scored low on their ability. Peer assessment, the highest score was seen in the field of practical skills (12.69 ± 2.44) and the least was allocated to the field of cooperation with the treatment team (7.70 ± 1.96.). Comparing the mean scores of self-assessments with the mean scores of peers demonstrated a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001).

Self-assessment and peer assessment as a complementary, applicable and accessible method for assessing students' achievement of expected competencies can be considered in the evaluation system of clinical education.

During the COVID-19 pandemic era, adhering to professional commitments can be a major challenge. This study aims to document the experiences of medical residents and faculty members on the challenges of adhering to professional commitments during the COVID-19 pandemia and its impacts on clinical education.

This qualitative study (using a descriptive phenomenology and purposive sampling method) was conducted in 2020, comprising 14 participants (faculty members and infectious diseases residents of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences) to share their experiences on the challenges of strict adherence to professional behavior. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews. The transcribed interviews were analyzed based on the Colaizzi approach.

Ninety extracted primary codes are classified to two main areas: problems in adherence to professional commitments and the impact of COVID-19 pandemia on educational and research activities mandatory for professionalism. In the first area, the three main themes includes reducing effective patient-physician communication, non-maleficence and violating justice, and the second, two main themes includes a rise in non-professional behavior when dealing with patients (cutting down the quantity and quality of training, reducing supervision and decreased clinical engagement with patients) and a rise in non-professional behaviors in the research area.

The most important problem negatively affecting professional commitments during corona epidemy is role overload and the deterioration of physician-patient relationship. Due to the influence of role modeling on student professional behavior, it is helpful to include the training of related skills that can reduce the incidence of these problems in the clinical settings.

Accreditation is one of the most important tools to improve the quality of education in nursing. This study has made a comparative comparison of the accreditation model of the Bachelor of Nursing training program in Iran, Canada and the United States.

A descriptive and comparative study was conducted in 2021. keywords like "accreditation", "undergraduate nursing", "educational program or curriculum", "Canada", "Iran", and "America" were searched in Persian and English via relevant sites and the Bereday model in 4 stages of description, interpretation, proximity, and comparison was used for comparative comparison.

Accreditation in the Iranian model is more focused on managerial, structural and administrative standards. In the American model, it focuses on global developments in the field of health, providing educational programs with intercultural and transnational perspectives, interprofessional cooperation, distance education, evaluating learning outcomes and using its results in the development of education. The Canadian model focuses on participatory management, inspirational leadership, development of nursing professional competencies tailored to community health needs, team care in various areas of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, interprofessional training, independence and freedom of action in budgeting for faculty members.

Between the three study models, the Canadian and American models totaly specializes in nursing, and of course the Canadian model is more comprehensive, and since there are no specific accreditation standards for nursing in Iran, these two programs can be used as a suitable model to be taken.

Unlike the face-to-face courses offered on campus, online courses are predominantly asynchronous, where students basically decide when they can attend online courses. There is also an intermediate method referred to as blended learning (BL) that combines the merits of both methods. This study investigates the effect of blended learning on attitude and learning applied Biostatistics.

The students' comprehension levels and attitudes were measured for both groups. The face-to-face group is so designed as to include 16 weeks of two-hour sessions, one session weekly, in one semester. The blended-learning group is designed to receive in one semester 16 weeks of two-hour sessions, one session weekly, such that initially, the group receives four sessions of electronic educational content and then eight sessions of blended learning. The scores attitudes of students from either group was obtained after the final exam and via the university's course evaluation system. The final exam score of both groups based on the results of the student's Bachelor's degree was compared using ANCOVA in terms of either teaching methods.

The numbers (proportions) of the participants attending Environmental Health, Waste Management, and Elderly Health courses were 14 (35%), 13 (32.5%), and 13 (32.5%), respectively. The mean (SD) of the scores for the blended-learning group with 18 participants was 16.69 (2.45), which was significantly higher than the score of 14.49 (2.67) for the face-to-face learning group with 22 participants (P = 0.013). Comparisons were made after adjusting the average on the bachelor's degree of both groups.

In addition to the improved score for the BL group, the attitudes differed. Therefore, this method is recommended for teaching Applied Biostatistics.

The aim of the present study was to assess the psychometric properties of the tool for evaluating attitudes toward educational scholarship from the perspective of faculty members in empowerment programs.

The present study is a cross-sectional (descriptive-analytical) study, conducted at Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences. The Delphi technique was used to evaluate the content and face validity of the Persian version of the questionnaire of Jackson et al 2005. Exploratory factor analysis of the questionnaire was performed for the first time. Internal Consistency test and reproducibility was calculated using Cronbach's alpha, ICC test, respectively.

The results of content validity showed that all items of the questionnaire based on the Lawshe table had values greater than 49.0. Quantitative and qualitative validity of the questionnaire was confirmed. The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the items were categorized into two categories: self-efficacy and motivation. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by the internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha = 0.93 and ICC = 0.89 of the questionnaire.

The results confirmed the validity of tool. Therefore this tool could be useful for the evaluation of supportive-educational programs to empower faculty members. In the present study, two factors of self-efficacy and motivation were identified that point to the importance of motivating faculty members that encourages them to start and continue educational research projects. The self-efficacy factor also increases people's belief in the ability to carry out educational research projects.

The interrelationship between medical science and literature is undeniable; obviously, the Literature has been enriched with the views of those in the medical field, also masterpieces in the field of literature have been created by medical writers. Conversely, the medical profession owes much to those who, through literary skills, have succeeded in conveying certain ideas to the general public and carved in human ethics and virtues in this profession.

This study is based on literary masterpieces using a descriptive and analytical approach, investigating the influence of literature and medicine on each other.

If literature is indebted to medical science, medical science is also influenced by literature, that is since the purpose of a literary work is to arouse sympathy in the reader or spectator, the design of a patient's suffering in a literary work evokes a passionate sympathy in the physician and especially compels or inspires the physician to take action on the patient's suffering that will be more effective if this empathy leads to compassion. In addition, the literature stimulates a sense of responsibility and commitment to fellow human beings and also plays an important role in regulating the patient's history and diagnosis and treatment of the disease by the physician.

Medical students, by reading the literature, in addition to finding skills in biography and diagnosis and treatment, learn commitment and empathy that will be impactful in reducing human suffering.

The closing down of schools and universities due to the COVID-19 outbreak led to introducing virtual education. Considering the importance of virtual education during coronavirus pandemic, this study aimed to investigate the factors affecting the quality of virtual education from the viewpoint of professors and students of rehabilitation fields of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences.

The present descriptive-analytical study was carried out in the presence of 17 professors and 210 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of rehabilitation. Data was collected using a questionnaire and its validity was confirmed by experienced professors in virtual education and its reliability was determined by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (97.0).

The results showed that from the viewpoint of professors, all domains of the questionnaire were considered effective factors for the quality improvement of virtual education but students considered the domain of clarification of the learner's expectations as the most effective factor and the domain of minimizing the sense of isolation and creating the sense and motivation of being part of the learning community as the least effective factor.

Taking in to account these important factors affecting the efficacy of virtual education, it is necessary for policymakers in the field of education to organize the necessary programs and pay attention to providing the conditions essential in improving the quality of virtual education for learners.

Many disciplines in the collection of medical sciences and engineering are based on the basis of chemistry. In order to continue teaching learners in the coronavirus disease situation and to continue the curriculum, various solutions have been proposed and presented, among which it is expected that using technology, the method of educators changes from the traditional approach. New ideas that learners encounter in the face of abstract concepts of chemistry are often outside their conceptual understanding and often lead to alternative and misunderstood concepts. Learners also face additional difficulties in understanding abstract concepts in the online and offline virtual learning space. In order to overcome the problems of understanding concepts in learners and improve learning in virtual space, educators can use appropriate analogies in chemistry classes that create a kinetic scheme in the minds of learners. Therefore, in order to create more understanding in the virtual training of courses related to chemistry and biochemistry in the coronavirus disease situation, it is necessary for the virtual teacher to try to compensate the lack of face-to-face communication by providing learning activities appropriate to the abstract nature of scientific concepts. The instructor's familiarity with this subject and the preparation of content based on animation techniques and dynamic graphic images that facilitate movement representation in the analogies used in the learner's mind are recommended instead of one-sided lectures in online virtual classes or offline content.